tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869433775702147571.post5121847716981330287..comments2024-01-03T14:02:21.747-07:00Comments on Fox the Poet: The New York Times: Is Slam in Danger of Going Soft?FoxThePoethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10261979793062551850noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869433775702147571.post-80930845471782060252010-01-22T15:38:06.543-07:002010-01-22T15:38:06.543-07:00Keep on posting such stories. I love to read artic...Keep on posting such stories. I love to read articles like this. BTW add more pics :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869433775702147571.post-85722031091549869372009-08-12T13:47:11.148-07:002009-08-12T13:47:11.148-07:00Good point about riding that fence, and also ... s...Good point about riding that fence, and also ... slam is as slam does. Slam IS the poets. And at least from what I've seen in the past however many years, a disproportionate number of slam poets are middle class, straight, white men who want so much to speak on behalf of people who don't resemble them: 1) Because these men (most of them) aren't talented or insightful or introspective or hard core enough to put their own lives and struggles out in front of an audience in a way that's both thoughtful and thought-provoking--unless it's a self-deprecating, quasi-autobiographical sex poem played for cheap laughs. (Which, by the way, has got to be a blow to one's ego night after night--again, I'll bring up the "I don't want to fuck a fat chick poem" because it sticks in my mind as being something that's genuinely honest, thought-provoking, funny and sad. I couldn't say about artistry; I don't remember it that well.)<br />2) Because that's what slam is "supposed to be about" . . . right? I'm sorry, but I don't want to hear a poem in which a to empathize or capture the emotional state of a girl who has been raped. Men can write good poems about rape. It is possible. Men, however, cannot speak for women who have been raped. There seems to be some confusion about this distinction among slam poets. I'm just using this as an example, but I think it's a good example because I've heard too many of these poems to ignore the trend.<br />This goes back to what I said above about poets being impassioned and well-intentioned. I believe that male slam poet X sits down to write a poem responding to the rape case he read in the paper, truly believing in his heart that rape is an awful thing. I believe that this same poet thinks he is serving the human race by putting the belief of his heart in a slam piece.<br />And I believe that that same poet has, in the back of his head, a voice that says, "If I write this poem about rape and really put my feelings out there, and maybe tweak this detail here and that detail there to amp up the emotional impact, I am going to win some serious points at the slam."<br />Poems on difficult topics that touched me the first time I saw them performed really lost me the second, third, fourth, fifth times around because the poet was acting, and any real emotion in the words was long gone. I find that kind of disgusting, actually. It's a disgusting spectacle, and it perpetuates victimization and disempowerment. If men stopped raping women tomorrow, what would Aaron Levy write a poem about?<br />You know what I mean? Too much of slam, fueled by the competitive elements, takes messages of real social weight out of the mouths of those who own them and repackages it as entertainment. And young people (an older people too) who go to watch buy into what they're sold--this message that this is really socially cutting edge and breaking down barriers and whatnot. I guess slam really has gotten a generation of people interested in writing, which is good, but has taught them to write bad, wrong-headed poetry, which is bad. Anyway. I could go on and on, and I already have, so...<br /><br />Yes, Susan Somers-Willett looks uncannily like me. I'd take her credentials, that's for sure.Emily Lyonshttp://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=802059359&ref=mfnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869433775702147571.post-52276807374007580822009-08-11T22:32:57.311-07:002009-08-11T22:32:57.311-07:00I've always thought of good slam poetry as ano...I've always thought of good slam poetry as another genre, like sestinas or haiku. Granted, once an anti-authoritarian art form gets the POTUS as an audience, whether he or she is from Chicago or not, it's no longer anti-authoritarian for all intents and purposes.<br />When the revolutionaries get into power, the revolution is over and no amount of Cultural Revolution is going to dissuade the masses that the revolutionaries aren't in power. But once it gets into that position, it needs to change shape. Yes, slam has come a long way from bucking the system, but once it began to spread, it could no longer be the beast Marc Smith bore. But that was the irony of slam itself: he created it essentially as a gimmick to get people interested in poetry, he shouldn't be surprised that people got interested. As far as I was concerned, the death of slam as avant-garde wasn't Def Poetry but when the mayor of Albuquerque kicked off NPS 2005.<br />Of course, there were steps long, long before, perhaps the first newspaper article about slam or the first NPS in 1990, or the first time a slam poet sold a chapbook. Marc Smith seems to want slam to still be edgy, which it can be, but at the same time wants slam to successfully connect with audiences worldwide. He rides the fence that we all do: we want to be seen as fighting the system, but when we get paid to feature, paid to host slams, or offered to read slams in schools, we have to say we're fighting that system either tongue-in-cheek or fighting from the inside.<br />As long as articles keep coming about slam that put it into context as social and artistic criticism, I'm happy that it enters self-reflective analysis beyond the typical "anti-slam slam poem."<br />However, Bloom is a douche, or at least an "old fuddy-duddy dunder-head" as others have claimed.<br />Off topic, when I first uploaded Susan Somers-Willett's Website, http://www.susansw.com/ I thought she was you. Just for a second.FoxThePoethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10261979793062551850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869433775702147571.post-34568819465086514742009-08-11T22:31:34.484-07:002009-08-11T22:31:34.484-07:00I've always thought of good slam poetry as ano...I've always thought of good slam poetry as another genre, like sestinas or haiku. Granted, once an anti-authoritarian art form gets the POTUS as an audience, whether he or she is from Chicago or not, it's no longer anti-authoritarian for all intents and purposes.<br />When the revolutionaries get into power, the revolution is over and no amount of ... Read MoreCultural Revolution is going to dissuade the masses that the revolutionaries aren't in power. But once it gets into that position, it needs to change shape. Yes, slam has come a long way from bucking the system, but once it began to spread, it could no longer be the beast Marc Smith bore. But that was the irony of slam itself: he created it essentially as a gimmick to get people interested in poetry, he shouldn't be surprised that people got interested. As far as I was concerned, the death of slam as avant-garde wasn't Def Poetry but when the mayor of Albuquerque kicked off NPS 2005.<br />Of course, there were steps long, long before, perhaps the first newspaper article about slam or the first NPS in 1990, or the first time a slam poet sold a chapbook. Marc Smith seems to want slam to still be edgy, which it can be, but at the same time wants slam to successfully connect with audiences worldwide. He rides the fence that we all do: ... Read Morewe want to be seen as fighting the system, but when we get paid to feature, paid to host slams, or offered to read slams in schools, we have to say we're fighting that system either tongue-in-cheek or fighting from the inside.<br />As long as articles keep coming about slam that put it into context as social and artistic criticism, I'm happy that it enters self-reflective analysis beyond the typical "anti-slam slam poem."<br />However, Bloom is a douche, or at least an "old fuddy-duddy dunder-head" as others have claimed.<br />Off topic, when I first uploaded Susan Somers-Willett's Website, http://www.susansw.com/ I thought she was you. Just for a second.FoxThePoethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10261979793062551850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869433775702147571.post-14572191765976014272009-08-11T22:30:07.541-07:002009-08-11T22:30:07.541-07:00Okay...yes, I think it's going soft. In fact, ...Okay...yes, I think it's going soft. In fact, I think it's been soft for a long time. I think Harold Bloom is a colossal douche who doesn't know what he's talking about, and Amiri Baraka, while I respect him, seems to be missing the point.<br />I think good slam moves you, makes you think, and makes you aware. To paraphrase St. Paul, like love, ... Read Moreslam should not be boastful or arrogant or rude, but rejoice in truth. I think it's rare that slam--however impassioned and well-intentioned--is anything but boastful, arrogant and rude these days. And largely because, as Susan Somers-Willett put it in the article, "it has gotten more and more homogeneous and started catering to a demographic mainstream." I still support the idea of slam, but I don't blame Marc Smith for his disillusionment.Emily Lyonshttp://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=802059359&ref=mfnoreply@blogger.com